Senate turns heat on Salaries commission over pay demands

By MOSES NJAGIH

The Senate came out fighting against what they termed a move by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to kill devolution.

The House accused SRC chair Sarah Serem of lacking decorum in her address to elected leaders and abusing constitutional powers.

“Serem has turned herself into another politician and we want to tell her we will not entertain being abused by a public servant. She must speak with decorum when addressing elected leaders,” said Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki.

The House set aside time to debate the adjournment of county assemblies sittings, a move they said had paralysed operations of devolved governments.

The Senators trained their eyes on the Sarah Serem-led commission, directing her to immediately hold dialogue with county assembly members, who are on a go-slow to ensure activities of devolved governments do not suffer.

Moving the Motion, Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen said key tasks such as approval of appointed County Executives and approval of county budgets, which forms the basis of the operations of county governments are suspended since the same are supposed to be conducted by county assembly members.

Mr Murkomen dismissed the Sh79,000 salary for county assembly members, saying it was not sufficient to sustain them, warning the salary would discourage competent professionals from seeking the positions.

“We must attract qualified staff if devolution is to work. We cannot attract these people if this is the remuneration we are giving them,” he said.

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said many professionals had left their jobs to become members of the assemblies.

He blamed the drafters of the Constitution for ignoring the cost of running Government when they created these many positions.

“Our passing of this Constitution had to have consequences. When some of us raised this issue of many elective positions in Parliament, these members of the civil society now attacking elected leaders for demanding better pay were baying for our blood,” said Khalwale.

He added: “We must make a decision now on whether we want to have county assembly members or not, whether we want to attract professionals in these positions or not or even decide to kill devolution”.

The Senators said after the Constitution allowed devolution, some professionals had moved to their counties to help improve them, but cautioned the spirit of devolution will not be achieved if the salaries are not competitive.